Dear Joe

I am a prospective secondary MFL teacher currently studying a BA in Modern Language Studies (French and English) with the OU. I alos have an LLB degree with 30 credits of German.

I am considering completing a Certificate in Higher Education in Spanish with the OU after my degree which would take me up to B1 level in the European Framework of langauges. Would this be acceptable for a second langauge when it comes to applying for a PGCE?

I too am considering completing an ou degree in modern languages with a view to teaching. So you know if schools rate the ou degree in languages as highly as one from a bricks uni. The ou does not cover literature which I believe is taught at A level. I get the impression with an ou degree in languages graduates will only be able to teach to gcse level? Perhaps you know something about this as you seem to have done some research already?
Martha Robb

My sister has just done MFL PGCE at Edgehill-very good course there by the way-and she has been down the OU route for French and Spanish. She is now working and is getting some good appraisals after only a few weeks-she is only teaching up to GCSE level at the moment and would probably not feel confident at a higher level as yet.

I am a great supporter of the OU and am currently studying my fifthe coures with them. However what I do not understand about the OU MFL BA is that there is no requirement for anything other than a couple of residential courses in the TL country. When I studied for my MFL degree in the 70s it was impossible to graduate without a year abroad. My son has just completed his year abroad, and the speaking assessment he has just been through was based entirely on that experience.
I also believe that the YA is indispensable not only for gaining experience in depth of using the language but also for cultural understanding, in every sense.
So how can a degree without the YA experience be an equivalent? The OU is great at encouraging independent learning. My son took level 1 OU courses instead of A2 and they have prepared him wonderfully for study at a bricks uni.